Industrial products are manufactured via various steps, and various working robots are used to automate a task of each step. However, as the task is more complicated, it is more difficult to automate each step using a working robot.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-11580 proposes a gripping apparatus for performing a task such that a flexible cable requiring a relatively complicated task step is gripped and the gripped flexible cable is connected to a connector.
This gripping apparatus performs the following task. Initially, an intermediate portion of a flexible cable that does not move significantly is loosely gripped by a first robot hand. The first hand is moved along the flexible cable so as to fix a tip portion of the cable to a predetermined position. The cable tip portion, after fixed to the predetermined position, is gripped by a second robot hand.
Thus, the conventional gripping apparatus, when gripping a cable, requires two steps using two robot hands, resulting in a complicated gripping task.